728 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1908. 



all over the shores of the island for the shell, of which the " darts " that here 

 occur iu all the rocks are undoubtedly fossils. Such " darts " are here often 

 found entirely hollow, so that crusta and dissepimenia are lying around quite 

 empty. 



In another place lie says: 



* * * When the flakes were separated from each other these " darts " 

 or " Oland spikes '' could be seen packed as tight together as husks in coarse 

 bread, so that God alone knows where so many rare shells come from. 



A fossil, quite rare in other places but common here, resembled a valvula 

 Echini, often as large as the palm of the hand, but otherwise crescentlike in 

 shape, with two parallel grooves and several transverse stripes. 



The last-mentioned fossil, of which Linne's original figure is here 

 reproduced, is apparentlj^ the pygidiiim of a 3Iegalaspis, xdiich is 

 quite common in this limestone. The most interesting circumstance 

 connected with the above-mentioned quotation is of course Linne's 

 consternation at the fact that no Orthoceras shells were found cast 

 up on the shore. * * * 



Two years later (1747), however, during the journey in Westro- 

 gothia, he mentions the occurrence of Orthoceratites in the limestone 

 at Kinnekulle in the following words : 



" Fizzles," or " stone butts," are the popular local names for the same kind 

 of stone which occurs so abundantly on Oland, and there was called " Darts " ; 

 and, exactly as in Oland, there was a profusion of them in the limestone. 

 They are nothing else than the fossil of a species of mollusk called " Nautilus 

 rectus" the petrified shells of which are of the most rare in all shell collec- 

 tions. * * * 



In the Museum Tessinianum he says: 



* * * That these creatures formerly existed in enormous multitudes in 

 Sweden the lime cliffs on the shores of Oland, where they lie as thick as chaff 

 in wheat, convince us; but now the animals have so completely disappeared 

 that I have never seen one of the shells in a collection of mullusks, and there- 

 fore they are generally classed among the extinct species of Europe. 



In the Systema Naturae (1768). he says: 



Habitat sine dubio in abysso maris Baltici ; deperditus ; * * * 



Linne seems to mean by this expression that Orthoceras shells 

 may still be found in the deepest recesses of the Baltic, while the 

 animals themselves were extinct. 



On Gotland Linne had a similar experience with corals. At Visby 

 he immediately noticed their occurrence — MadrefonM simplices and 

 Madreporm aggregates — " a couple of fathoms above the sea, in 

 great numbers," and in the limestone at HangA^ar he alleges that 

 there were " very many petnficata^ especially Entrochi, and a species 

 of coral which resembled Lycopodium or Club moss." The richest 

 collection of corals was, however, made at Kapellshamn : 



* * * The Madreporss at the water's edge were pure and clear and 

 studded with stars like the reverse side of a playing card or the pores of a 



